Some of the biggest names in British sport have weighed into the Dwain Chambers debate by signing a petition calling for all drug cheats to be banned from the Olympic Games.

Almost 100 living legends have joined forces with some of the disgraced sprinter's peers to back the British Olympic Association (BOA) bylaw that prevents convicted dopers from appearing on the biggest stage of all.

The likes of Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Kelly Holmes and Chris Hoy have put their names to an open letter designed to thwart Chambers's plan to defeat the BOA ban in the High Court. “Every athlete that competes for Great Britain knows the BOA rules,” Redgrave said in support of a hardline stance. “If an athlete takes the risk of cheating they have to accept the penalties that go with this.”

Chambers's legal team, led by Jonathan Crystal, the barrister, will lodge a challenge to the bylaw within 72 hours. They hope to win their case in time for Chambers, who completed a two-year ban for taking tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in 2005, to secure a place in the Olympic team at the trials starting in Birmingham on Friday week.

But they will be shocked at the scale of opposition. The 95 are all members of the British Athletes' Commission, which bills itself as “the unified voice of Olympic, Paralympic and world class-funded athletes” and was instrumental in the introduction of the BOA bylaw in 1992. The letter they have signed states: “Any athlete who has taken performance-enhancing drugs has not only cheated themselves and other athletes, but all those who watch, participate and enjoy sport.”

Hoy, a multiple cycling world champion as well as an Olympic gold medal-winner, also sent his personal thoughts. “To remove the bylaw would be a huge step backwards in the fight against doping in sport,” he said. “[It] would simply make the repercussions less severe and potentially cause an increase in the number of athletes who perceive drug abuse to be a risk worth taking.”

Similar letters of support form a damning message to Chambers as he craves acceptance from his contemporaries. Pete Reed, a two-time world champion rower and Olympic hopeful, explained the problems that a successful challenge could unleash by saying that he would not want to compete in a team with anyone who had knowingly taken drugs.

Chambers told UK Sport last month that he had taken a cocktail of seven different drugs and even those in athletics are lining up against him. Most vociferous is Craig Pickering, the sprinter denied a place at the World Indoor Championships after being beaten by Chambers at the trials in February. “Taking drugs is the worst crime that can be committed within the sporting world,” Pickering wrote. “It involves lying, cheating and robbing people who may have worked for more than a decade to achieve greatness, only to have it taken away from them at the last minute.” Just six weeks before the Olympics, Pickering also made the allegation that “cheating is becoming more commonplace”.

Becky Lyne, the 800 metres runner who could also be a team-mate of Chambers in Beijing, wrote: “It would be ludicrous to rescind punishments on doped athletes.”

The BOA has promised to contest any challenge to bylaw 25, with Lord Moynihan, its chairman, vowing to pay whatever it takes. It is believed that could be as high as £200,000 and many legal experts believe that Chambers would win. Even Dick Pound, a lawyer and former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said that the BOA was on “shaky ground”.